19 July 2011 early edition/transcript/Part 17
Part 17 JIM SHERIDAN: Ms Brooks, Rupert Murdoch in his evidence session said quite clearly that the responsibility for the closure of the News of the World lay fairly and squarely with senior management of that paper, which I assume would include you. Is that the case? REBEKAH: I think I may have missed that part of the evidence, but I think Mr Murdoch said it exactly how it was. It was a collective decision. We all talked together. Mr Murdoch was abroad at the time at a conference, so we all talked together. Q483 SHERIDAN: Is that Mr Murdoch senior? REBEKAH: Sorry, yes, Rupert Murdoch. Q484 SHERIDAN: I thought you were about to say something else. REBEKAH: No. Q485 SHERIDAN: To follow up from that, when you were advising your staff that the paper was closing during the private session, I think you said something like there was more to come. Would you like to expand on what you meant by that? REBEKAH: What I said was that when I went down to the newsroom to explain the decision, clearly and quite rightly the journalists on the News of the World—very honourable journalists, who had been putting out a newspaper under this scrutiny for a long time with great exclusives and with great pride in their newspaper—were very sad and baffled by management's decision to close the paper. What I was saying to them is that right now you may not be able to right in this moment understand why we have done it, but as the months go by—I think I said in a year's time—I think you will come to the realisation that we actually did the right thing. Once you have broken the trust with the readers, there is not much going back. Unfortunately, the News of the World used to lead the headlines for the right reasons—the cricket scandal recently—but for the last few months and probably for the last few years, it has been leading the headlines for the wrong reasons. Once that trust was broken, we felt that that was the right decision. Of course, it wasn't the right decision for the hundreds of journalists who worked there, who had done nothing wrong and who were in no way responsible. Many of them were at the News of the World for many years, have spent years at the News of the World and are not culpable for anything. We have endeavoured to find them jobs—every single one of them will be offered a job. Q486 SHERIDAN: I accept that, but it wasn't just journalists, was it? It was secretaries, engineers, drivers or whoever they may be. Are they all expected to find jobs as well? REBEKAH: Everybody. Not just in News International, but across News Corporation. Q487 SHERIDAN: So what do you anticipate will happen in a year that you don't know now? REBEKAH: As I have said, part of the problem with this story is the lack of visibility of the documentation seized from Glenn Mulcaire's house in 2006. We have no visibility on it; you have no visibility on it; only the police have visibility on it, and they are conducting their new inquiry. I am sure that they will go through the thousands and thousands of documents that they say are there. I think we will, in a year's time—maybe even longer—actually get to a final position on what exactly happened. Q488 SHERIDAN: Could I ask you a couple of questions? You will be aware of Tommy Sheridan, the former MSP. REBEKAH: Yes, I am. Q489 SHERIDAN: May I put a question to you that, unfortunately, James Murdoch could not answer? Bob Bird, during the course of last year's Sheridan trial, gave evidence under oath on two occasions that e-mails relating to his case showing contact between News of the World and Crown witnesses, private detectives, surveillance and phone hacking could not be retrieved, as they were lost in some black hole in Mumbai. That is not the case. They have now been found, I am told. Do you know anything about that? REBEKAH: I think that what actually happened was that he was referring to an issue that we had had with our suppliers, and I think I am correct in thinking that the Information Commissioner has put out a clarification to that and explained that there was no issue and that they were entirely comfortable with News International's response to that. Q490 SHERIDAN: Do you know who gave him the advice that the e-mails were lost somewhere? REBEKAH: I don't know. Q491 SHERIDAN: Also, his defence team has still not received these retrieved e-mails. Have you any idea why not? REBEKAH: Sorry? SHERIDAN: The e-mails have since been retrieved, but Tommy Sheridan's defence team has still not received them. Have you any idea why not? REBEKAH: I think that the clarification from the Information Commissioner was that what in fact happened was the editor of the Scottish News of the World made a comment during the trial that was interpreted as you are saying now, but when he looked into it and asked News International for an explanation, it was actually a problem with our suppliers in India, and there was no such retrieval. Q492 SHERIDAN: Have you had any contact with Andy Coulson during the Sheridan case? REBEKAH: I think Andy Coulson was in Downing Street during the Sheridan case, so I would have had some contact. SHERIDAN: So you had no direct contact—no e-mails or letters? REBEKAH: I said I would have had contact. SHERIDAN: Yes, but there were no e-mails—just a conversation? REBEKAH: It would have been mainly to do with work, by e-mail or by telephone. Q493 SHERIDAN: I have a couple of final questions. Why was News of the World paying Andy Coulson's legal fees and Glenn Mulcaire's legal fees during the Sheridan case when they are only cited as witnesses? REBEKAH: As I understand it—I know James Murdoch addressed this—when Andy Coulson left News of the World, he had an agreement that all matters relating to this, his legal fees, were paid. I think the same for Clive Goodman. On Glenn Mulcaire, I think his legal fees would be paid when in fact he was a co-defendant in the civil cases. Q494 SHERIDAN: Finally, are you aware of any payment to police officers in the East Lothian force, the Edinburgh force? REBEKAH: No.